An Art-House Epic

By the middle of last week, outside the Ziegfeld Theatre, a line had begun to form of would-be patrons of “Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones,” which opens on May 16th. If the “Star Wars” aficionados had gained entrance to the theatre on Wednesday night, when it was taken over for a benefit screening of a new film by the artist Matthew Barney, they might have discovered much to their taste. Like “Star Wars,” Barney's film is part of an epic cycle that has been released out of order: this episode is “Cremaster 3,” but “Cremaster”s 4 and 5, as well as 1 and 2, have come and gone. Barney, like George Lucas, favors impressive prosthetics and special effects: a giant with a particularly unpleasant skin condition lumbering over a Scottish island, palming sheep as snacks; a demolition derby being conducted in the lobby of the Chrysler Building with five 1967 Chrysler Imperials crushing a Chrysler New Yorker that contains a zombie's remains. And, like “Star Wars,” “Cremaster 3″ includes all kinds of references to previous “Cremaster”s: the zombie, for example, is all that is left of the murderer Gary Gilmore, who was depicted, alive, in “Cremaster 2.” The “Star Wars” fans might have been somewhat daunted, however, by the absence of dialogue in “Cremaster 3,” which makes distinguishing between the forces of good and the forces of evil that much more complicated. And certain parts of the movie, which is three hours long, are not suitable for family viewing, including a sequence in which five dancers parade around the Guggenheim Museum in high heels, G-strings, and tasselled pasties—the kind of exhibition that even Thomas Krens, the populist director of the museum, might have trouble getting past his board.

Hardly less daring was the gown worn to the première by the movie's leading lady, Aimee Mullins: a beige, floor-length number with a deeply plunging backline skimming buttocks that could star in “StairMaster 3.” Mullins, who is a double amputee, plays a number of roles in the film, including one in which she wears a backless dress over a pair of translucent high-heeled legs, and another in which she is changed into a cheetah woman, stalking her prey—Barney, in a pink tartan kilt and pink feathered busby—on hind legs that end not in human feet but in feline paws. “It was very physically demanding, but my background as an athlete helped,” said Mullins, who was teetering slightly in strappy sandals. (“These legs have, like, Barbie feet, and the heels of the shoes are an inch too short,” she explained, as if all actresses endured such trials.)

Also present was the sculptor Richard Serra, who appears in the film. He plays an architect who, in the movie's con- clusion, battles with Barney in the spire of the Chrysler Building. “We had an enormous fight,” Serra said with relish. In another scene, Serra is shown at the top of the Guggenheim spiral, hurling sloppy shovelfuls of molten Vaseline, a favorite material of Barney's, in a reference to Serra's own thrown-lead pieces. “This is Matthew Barney's universe,” Thomas Krens, who'd arranged for Barney to film the scenes in the museum, said. (The Guggenheim is presenting a Barney retrospective next year.)

The trappings of a movie première—paparazzi, effusive supporters, hard-to-snag glasses of champagne—are not, apparently, Matthew Barney's universe: Barney, who is thirty-five years old and could be called movie-star handsome even if he hadn't starred in five movies of his own, was barely spotted in the lobby before the screening. “He's an artist, and he's very camera-shy for someone who appears so much on camera,” Nancy Spector, the retrospective's curator, said, attempting to mollify aggrieved pho- tographers who had been waiting for red-carpet shots. The limits of Barney's camera-shyness were demonstrated in the movie by a scene in which he is pinioned, half naked, to a dentist's chair, with a large skirt made of flesh growing from his belly. Barney, who materialized at the last minute, watched the movie sitting alongside Björk, his girlfriend. “Cremaster 3″ is the final episode in the movie cycle, but it was announced earlier in the day that Barney has a new project under way: Björk is expecting a baby in the fall. “Cremaster 6,” one of the guests said, with a fond air of congratulation appropriate to the event.